Stephanie Otis
9/25/13
EDC 102H -- Dr. Fogelman
Early School Influence: New Beginnings With The Right Teachers
With new beginnings come many new adjustments. Adjustments to the new surroundings, new people, new responsibilities, new experiences. The insecurity can often be emotionally overwhelming and become a source of anxiety or even depression. First grade and seventh grade were new beginnings for me. As I entered elementary school and middle school, I entered new buildings and new chapters of my life, critical learning periods. Fortunately, I had two very influential teachers to positively shape these critical learning periods for me: Mrs. Hendry and Ms. Hart.
I still remember my first day of elementary school. I had gone to a private school for preschool and kindergarten, so when I transferred to a public school for first grade, I felt nervous because all the kids in my class had already been going to school with each other for two years. Everything seemed so new. In reality, not much was different, but it's hard to really feel that when you're so young. From the first day of first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Hendry, made me excited for school. She is one of those teachers who simply has a gift. There is no other way to put it. She naturally connects with children (and her collection of state awards are tangible proof). Mrs. Hendry taught me how to enjoy (and appreciate!) education through elaborate visuals and hands-on learning. To this day, I still remember "Mr. Wizard". Mr Wizard was a silly green puppet she used as an aid in many of her lessons. It was such an effective way of teaching because it made the information actually stick in our wondering, 6 year-old minds. My favorite lesson was contractions. She put latex gloves on Mr. Wizard's little hands and he taught us how to form a contraction by performing "surgery" on two words, shortening and connecting them into one with an apostrophe. How creative is that? Of course it's going to stick with us! Here I am twelve years later and I still remember Mr. Wizard's surgery to create grammatical contractions. That's effective teaching. Mrs. Hendry was also an advocate for out-of-classroom-learning. She loved to take us outside to study, for example, the life cycle of the monarch butterfly by going on a milkweed or a caterpillar hunt. How could you not be excited to go to school? Each day felt so easy with her because she invested her whole self in each student and their early childhood education. It's hard to speculate how my elementary education would have gone without Mrs. Hendry as my beginning teacher, but I can certainly say that she set the stage for a journey full of appreciating education. And for that, I am so thankful. Mrs. Hendry started me on a very critical, positive path that, without question, has aided my academic successes.
As soon as I made it through sixth grade in my elementary school, it was time for another big change: middle school. As if that wasn't nerve-racking enough, our middle school was in the high school, Hampshire Regional, composed of five school districts. Not only was I heading to a strange new 3-story building, but I was going to be walking the halls with (dun dun dun...) high schoolers! I was also nervous about the more rigorous workload that was going to come with entering middle school, figuring out my locker combination, finding all seven of my classes. To say the least, seventh grade was a rich source of anxiety. Luckily, oddly similar to my transition into first grade, I had a wonderful teacher to aid my transition into seventh grade. Her name was Ms. Hart and she taught Language Arts. I saw her for 48 minutes a day. For some that may have felt like a long time, but for me it was never enough. Ms. Hart was another naturally gifted teacher. She referred to all of her students as "my dumplings". She was a loud and theatrical teacher who knew how to strike a good balance between laughing and learning inside the classroom, and that became important to me. She was dedicated to truly getting to know each student, and teaching to them as an individual rather than generalizing the class as a whole. This was an eye-opening concept to me and I loved it. I learned more about writing in that year than I ever have since. Ms. Hart gave me confidence as a writer. With her guidance, I developed my own writing style. Her workload was challenging, but she also taught me the importance of taking a step back to breath. This quickly became a good technique to utilize in all of my classes, and still is. Without Ms. Hart, I would not have had the writer or student that I am today.
New beginnings can be hard, yes. But with the right support system to guide you, new beginnings can become strong foundations for a lifetime journey of building. Mrs. Hendry and Ms. Hart showed me the value of education through their ever-so-effective ways of teaching. It is a strange but beautiful coincidence that the two most gifted teachers I have ever had just so happened to come at the most opportunistic times in my education. As a result, they both have had a lasting influence on me.
9/25/13
EDC 102H -- Dr. Fogelman
Early School Influence: New Beginnings With The Right Teachers
With new beginnings come many new adjustments. Adjustments to the new surroundings, new people, new responsibilities, new experiences. The insecurity can often be emotionally overwhelming and become a source of anxiety or even depression. First grade and seventh grade were new beginnings for me. As I entered elementary school and middle school, I entered new buildings and new chapters of my life, critical learning periods. Fortunately, I had two very influential teachers to positively shape these critical learning periods for me: Mrs. Hendry and Ms. Hart.
I still remember my first day of elementary school. I had gone to a private school for preschool and kindergarten, so when I transferred to a public school for first grade, I felt nervous because all the kids in my class had already been going to school with each other for two years. Everything seemed so new. In reality, not much was different, but it's hard to really feel that when you're so young. From the first day of first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Hendry, made me excited for school. She is one of those teachers who simply has a gift. There is no other way to put it. She naturally connects with children (and her collection of state awards are tangible proof). Mrs. Hendry taught me how to enjoy (and appreciate!) education through elaborate visuals and hands-on learning. To this day, I still remember "Mr. Wizard". Mr Wizard was a silly green puppet she used as an aid in many of her lessons. It was such an effective way of teaching because it made the information actually stick in our wondering, 6 year-old minds. My favorite lesson was contractions. She put latex gloves on Mr. Wizard's little hands and he taught us how to form a contraction by performing "surgery" on two words, shortening and connecting them into one with an apostrophe. How creative is that? Of course it's going to stick with us! Here I am twelve years later and I still remember Mr. Wizard's surgery to create grammatical contractions. That's effective teaching. Mrs. Hendry was also an advocate for out-of-classroom-learning. She loved to take us outside to study, for example, the life cycle of the monarch butterfly by going on a milkweed or a caterpillar hunt. How could you not be excited to go to school? Each day felt so easy with her because she invested her whole self in each student and their early childhood education. It's hard to speculate how my elementary education would have gone without Mrs. Hendry as my beginning teacher, but I can certainly say that she set the stage for a journey full of appreciating education. And for that, I am so thankful. Mrs. Hendry started me on a very critical, positive path that, without question, has aided my academic successes.
As soon as I made it through sixth grade in my elementary school, it was time for another big change: middle school. As if that wasn't nerve-racking enough, our middle school was in the high school, Hampshire Regional, composed of five school districts. Not only was I heading to a strange new 3-story building, but I was going to be walking the halls with (dun dun dun...) high schoolers! I was also nervous about the more rigorous workload that was going to come with entering middle school, figuring out my locker combination, finding all seven of my classes. To say the least, seventh grade was a rich source of anxiety. Luckily, oddly similar to my transition into first grade, I had a wonderful teacher to aid my transition into seventh grade. Her name was Ms. Hart and she taught Language Arts. I saw her for 48 minutes a day. For some that may have felt like a long time, but for me it was never enough. Ms. Hart was another naturally gifted teacher. She referred to all of her students as "my dumplings". She was a loud and theatrical teacher who knew how to strike a good balance between laughing and learning inside the classroom, and that became important to me. She was dedicated to truly getting to know each student, and teaching to them as an individual rather than generalizing the class as a whole. This was an eye-opening concept to me and I loved it. I learned more about writing in that year than I ever have since. Ms. Hart gave me confidence as a writer. With her guidance, I developed my own writing style. Her workload was challenging, but she also taught me the importance of taking a step back to breath. This quickly became a good technique to utilize in all of my classes, and still is. Without Ms. Hart, I would not have had the writer or student that I am today.
New beginnings can be hard, yes. But with the right support system to guide you, new beginnings can become strong foundations for a lifetime journey of building. Mrs. Hendry and Ms. Hart showed me the value of education through their ever-so-effective ways of teaching. It is a strange but beautiful coincidence that the two most gifted teachers I have ever had just so happened to come at the most opportunistic times in my education. As a result, they both have had a lasting influence on me.